who is root? (or /usr/bin/sshd fails to start because of /var/log ownership)

[Mirko Vukovic <mirko dot vukovic at gmail dot com>]

Hello,

A few weeks ago, sshd stopped working after a cygwin64 update.  I
reinstalled cygwin64 (because of the new user and password handling, I
figured that to be easiest).

I still cannot get sshd to run.  I get an error message:
>/usr/sbin/sshd.exe -d
debug1: sshd version OpenSSH_6.7, OpenSSL 1.0.1k 8 Jan 2015
debug1: private host key: #0 type 1 RSA
debug1: private host key: #1 type 2 DSA
debug1: private host key: #2 type 3 ECDSA
debug1: private host key: #3 type 4 ED25519
/var/empty must be owned by root and not group or world-writable.

Here is what /var/empty looks like (I obfuscated the machine name part)
>ls -lrd /var/empty
drw-------+ 1 XXXXXXXXXX+cyg_server Administrators 0 Feb 25 09:41 /var/empty/

There is no root user on my machine.  Should I create it?

Here are notes of this mornings ssh configuration session - At the end

  sshd configuration:
  - Update Cygwin64
  - Opened bash terminal as administrator
    - '>echo $(/usr/bin/getent -w group S-1-5-32-544)'
      - 'Administrators:544:BUILTIN\Administrators:S-1-5-32-544'
  - `>cygrunsrv.exe --stop sshd'
  - `>cygrunsrv.exe --remove sshd'
  - `> ssh-host-config' Notes:
    - Will use the `XXXXXXXXXXXX+cyg_server' account
   - `>cygrunsrv.exe --remove sshd'


  Adjusting `/var/empty'
  - `>ls -lrd /var/empty' :
    - `drwxr-xr-x+ 1 XXXXXXXXXXXX+cyg_server Administrators 0 Feb 25
      09:41 /var/empty/'
  - `>chmod 600 /var/empty'
  - `>ls -lrd /var/empty' :
    - `drw-------+ 1 XXXXXXXXXXXX+cyg_server Administrators 0 Feb 25
      09:41 /var/empty/'


  Trying `sshd' in manual mode:
  ,----
  | >/usr/sbin/sshd.exe -d
  | debug1: sshd version OpenSSH_6.7, OpenSSL 1.0.1k 8 Jan 2015
  | debug1: private host key: #0 type 1 RSA
  | debug1: private host key: #1 type 2 DSA
  | debug1: private host key: #2 type 3 ECDSA
  | debug1: private host key: #3 type 4 ED25519
  | /var/empty must be owned by root and not group or world-writable.
  `----

Attaching output of cygcheck (with some information obfuscated, other deleted)

Thanks,

Mirko

Attachment: cygcheck.out
Description: Binary data

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